The Card Trick
by Bluelgummies
Summary: Vexen was in pain...and Marluxia wanted him to cheer up...to smile... What better way than perform a little magic?


**My best friend was performing these _awesome_ magic tricks, and I was watching him do this epic card trick, when I got attacked by an idea...(_it's right down there, in case you didn't notice_ 3) xDD****  
Got a pic to go with the story...you can find it on deviantart, on bluelgummies's account.  
****Happy munchin'!!!**

**x 3 o**

**THE CARD TRICK**

"Oh my God...what happened to you?"

The boy was huddled on the floor, silent sobs making his frail frame quiver violently. He was covering his face in his hands, tiny droplets of pink seeping through the fingers occasionally. His usually neat and tidyclothes were now dirty, a few tears here and there, as if he'd been dragged through dirt for miles on end.

To Marluxia, he looked like a broken doll.

His pale skin was covered in a blue-black array of tiny bruises and cuts, his long blond hair draping his face and arms, the arms hugginghis legs to his thin chest as he breathed rapidly in between sobs.

Marluxia crouched beside the boy, gently pushing the long strands of hair behind the boy's ears.

The boy started to shake his head in an act of desperation, shouting, "No! No...don't," in a panic-stricken voice, as Marluxia pried his hands away from his face.

Marluxia physically winced at the sight before him.

One of the boy's eyes was swollen shut, the skin surrounding it a sickening display of red and blue-black. His face was caked with partially dried blood, most of it under his nose and mouth. His lower lip was split in two places, swelling and bruises making their welcome there as well. His forehead had a sharp, clean cut, dried blood caking the skin around it. The other eye – that, Marluxia decided, was the worst of it all – was devoid of injury, but the look in it was heartbreaking.

Marluxia stared at that one, wide-open, beautiful green eye with his own blue ones, a feeling of dread-induced nausea gripping him for a brief moment.

The boy might have been in a state of panic, but his eyes mirrored a blank, soulless look – like he'd been broken into millions of pieces over, and over, and over again...now beyond repair.

"Vexen...?" Marluxia said warily, looking the injured boy up and down. The other didn't answer, just stared with his uninjured eye, no emotion passing though it, no sign of recognition either.

Of course, Marluxia and Vexen weren't friends, not really. He'd only talked to the blond during tutorage – Vexen had been his personal tutor. Marluxia had found Vexen to be extremely intelligent and polite, but he was also...oh so cold...

Marluxia had thought the boy very interesting, but he hadn't figured out a way to make him become his friend.

Every time he'd tried to make friendly conversation with the boy, trying to talk of things apart from school, Vexen would simply ignore him.

Whenever he'd tried to ask the boy anything personal, the other would simply stare at him silently, until he'd get uncomfortable and leave.

He'd even tried to get Vexen to go see a movie with him, to which the boy had simply said "Not interested."

Marluxia had run out of ways to make friends with the enigmatic blond, and so, he'd simply given up.

That was over a year ago.

Now, here he was, looking at his former student tutor, now only a sad, broken doll...

Marluxia brought his hand to the boy's cheek, gently tracing the outline of a cut-and-bruise. The other jerked away from his touch, silent tears that had been brimming his eyes starting their violent tirade down the contours of the boy's face.

"H-hey...don't cry!" Marluxia gasped, sad to see the other like this. He didn't want the boy to cry. Marluxia wanted him to smile.

Personally and honestly said, Marluxia felt pretty stupid as he rose up to his feet, fished around in his pockets, withdrew something and said, "Hey, don't cry! I'll show you a trick, if you wanna!"

Vexen's green eye stared back at him impassively.

"Uh..." Said Marluxia, now holding a card in his hand. He wanted the boy to smile, and all his brain could automatically come up with was a card trick he'd learnt a long time ago. It made his younger cousin happy every time he performed it, so why not?

"Ok, well..." He said uncertainly, flipping the five of spades over in his hands.

"This is a...a normal card, as you can see." He held the card out, turning it over twice to gain his sentence an approved effect. Vexen said nothing.

"And there's nothing attached to the card...just a...normal card..." Marluxia felt his voice dying out a little as he glanced into the boy's devoid gaze. He braced himself, making a sweeping motion with his hand first over the card, then under it.

"...but when you have magic powers like I do," said Marluxia, grinning a little as the boy scoffed. "you can make this card do anything."

Marluxia held the edges of the card diagonally with his forefingers and thumbs, his gaze steady as he looked at the card, imitating a serious, commanding tone. "Spin!"

The card started spinning, making perfect vertical circles in front of Marluxia's palms. The twirling was fast, the speed of it making the card fade into a mere blur. It almost did look like it was merely a sphere that Marluxia was holding – if you failed to notice that the sphere was suspended in mid-air with no visible support whatsoever.

Vexen's eye widened considerably – but this time in awe. His swollen lip fell slightly ajar as he gaped at the circular blur moving in front of the other boy.

Marluxia grinned. Amazement – that was a start, even if it wasn't quite a smile.

Vexen brought his legs down, propping himself into a better sitting position, keeping his eyes on the "magic card". He sat there, just watching the trick, admiring its fluid movements. He sat there in silence until the card stopped spinning.

Vexen blinked a few times as he realized that the motion had stopped. He looked up into the grinning face of the pink haired boy – Marluxia, he recognized.

"How did you do it?" Vexen asked.

Marluxia smiled wider, winking at the boy as he said, "It's magic."

The corners of Vexen's lips quirked, a vague smile settling onto the frail features.

"I thought as much," he said, smiling back at the pink haired boy.

"But I could show you how to do it." Marluxia said, extending an arm towards the boy. Vexen stared at the hand for a moment, then grabbed it with one of his sore ones, saying, "Sure, I don't see why not. Just don't turn me into a frog."

Marluxia laughed, helping the other up from the floor.

_Magic._

That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. The trick...it had worked like magic.


End file.
